Backstage at a fashion show, especially one held in the Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week tents, can be a tense, chaotic place. While the scene at Carmen Marc Valvo was certainly bustling and high-energy, it was also a really positive artistic space. The respect and value that the design, hair, makeup and nail teams have for one another comes through in their work and the collaborative nature of the looks. For what was one of the most stunning collections of Fashion Week so far, a strong beauty look was mandatory.

All of the beauty artists mentioned Carmen's fascination with Istanbul for Fall 2014 and the strong female that emerged from that inspiration.

"Carmen and I had a conversation about the collection, and basically he was saying that this woman is powerful," said MAC Cosmetics Lead Artist Romero Jennings. "She’s almost like a warrior. And the makeup needed to have this power also, almost like her armor, her protection. The brow is quite strong, angled slightly with a little bit of an extension. The liner really is the structure of the entire look, it’s a double line, as well as a nude lip that's just sort of taupey with lots of highlight, lots of shine. There’s lots of pewter in the collection, so we’re doing that also."

The distinctive liner look was achieved using Superslick in On the Hunt. How appropriate! As for trying this makeup at home, Romero says it's very accessible.

"It’s really good because technically it's just a liner and nude gloss," he explained. "The trick is I made it a double liner instead of one, but for the everyday girl, she could do the one liner and if she’s going out at night and wants to make it more interesting, she could do a double liner. These models look great; they’re going to look gorgeous with the liner, and I think the everyday woman will, too."

The hair was equally strong yet accessible in the hands of the personable and talented Ted Gibson.

"Carmen was inspired by Istanbul and the whole idea of a strong woman; I couldn't do hair that was flat," Gibson quipped. "Of course, I immediately thought about a ponytail, but we couldn’t do an ordinary ponytail. So we have these leather bands to wrap around it. I wanted to get it to the next level by adding something up-front, and fringe seemed appropriate for it. It makes it a little tougher."

While you may not want to go permanently cutting choppy bangs into your hair just for one look, Gibson says clip-in fringe, which is what was used at the show, is a great option.

"[The average girl] doesn’t necessarily have to have a choppy bang, she could change her hair by adding a clip-in bang," he testified.

Nails were kept more on the neutral side, but not without a little extra luminescence.

"We’re using Metaling Around as the nail color," said Danielle Candido. "It’s a strong neutral with a light reflective quality that gives it that play of light and inspiration from the feminine side."

Andrea Kiliany Thatcher is a freelance writer, editor and social media coordinator based out of the Philadelphia area. She writes mostly on fashion and beauty topics and has been covering New York Fashion Week and industry events for various online media since 2007.